Scale gaps in landscape phenology: challenges and opportunities

• Published in: Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) Vol. 36; no. 8; pp. 709 - 721
• Main Authors: Park, Daniel S., Newman, Erica A., Breckheimer, Ian K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2021
• Subjects: climate change; environmental heterogeneity; landscape ecology; scaling; spatiotemporal resolution; statistical aggregation; scaling; landscape ecology; environmental heterogeneity; statistical aggregation; spatiotemporal resolution; climate change
• ISSN: 0169-5347; 1872-8383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.04.008

Phenology, or the timing of life history events, can be heterogeneous across biological communities and landscapes and can vary across a wide variety of spatiotemporal scales. Here, we synthesize information from landscape phenology studies across different scales of measurement around a set of core concepts. We highlight why phenology is scale dependent and identify gaps in the spatiotemporal scales of phenological observations and inferences. We discuss the consequences of these gaps and describe opportunities to address the inherent sensitivities of phenological metrics to measurement scale. Although most studies we review and discuss are focused on plants, our work provides a broadly relevant overview of the role of observation scale in landscape phenology and a general approach for measuring and reporting scale dependence.
Phenological responses can be heterogeneous across species, communities, and landscapes and can vary across spatiotemporal scales.Global patterns of phenological sampling exhibit strong geographic trends and critical scale gaps.Phenological measurements dealing with the beginning or end of a process are especially sensitive to spatial and temporal measurement scale.Constructing scaling relationships and estimating their mathematical forms is necessary for forming null expectations about how spatiotemporal scale (resolution and extent) influences inferred phenological patterns and for resolving observed mismatches between phenological metrics measured at different scales.Phenological scaling rules can unlock new insights into the causes and consequences of shifting phenological landscapes and into broader questions about the spatial and temporal organization of ecological communities and interactions.